Date: 31 March
Time: 10:30-12:00
Tide at the beginning of count: 6.79 feet
Tide at the close of count: 3.35 feet
turning tide
Weather: Sunny, mild, calm sea
Participants: Helen Davidson, Bonnie Mullin, Liz Thorne, Jim Thorne, Toni Wyckoff, Linda Horspool, Sandy Gray, Dan Gray, Meghan MacIsaac, Dave Erickson, Jane Osborne, Catherine Watson, Liz Bredberg
Total brant counted: 1868
1. North Area
– Qualicum Beach, Tourist Info Bureau, and the gazebo viewing stand
– foot of Kinkaid Rd., beach access
– east end of Surfside Drive
– Little Qualicum Estuary, west end of Surfside Dr. & mouth of Little Q River.
Total brant counted in area: 250+
Other birds observed: 11 Bufflehead, 2 wigeon, 4 common loon, horned grebe, 20 +harlequin ducks, vast raft of mixed divers including scaup, surf scoters, huge flock of gulls (~10,000), including 150 short-billed gulls, 8 bald eagles, brewers blackbirds, 5 oystercatchers, 2 common loons in breeding plumage, bonaparte’s gulls, 15 black-bellied plovers, 12 wigeons, 50 mallards, 20 goldeneyes.
3 women with dogs on leash (photos on file)
2. Central Area
– French Creek Marina, east side looking out towards Parksville, and view the creek mouth from the west side.
– Columbia Beach, Admiral Tryon Blvd., east; view offshore, and French Creek River mouth.
-Admiral Tryon West, beach access to tidal pools.
– foot of Johnstone Rd.
– foot of Butterball, off Pintail & Yambury Rd.
– west end of Seacrest Place (Apenes), off Eaglecrest Dr. at Pintail Dr.
Total brant counted in area: 77
Other birds observed: 700 gulls, 64 buffleheads, 45 wigeons, 3 oyster catchers, 13 common mergansers, 2 gb herons, 6 crows, 34 common goldeneyes, 5 common loons, 4 scoters, 40 dunlin, 30 blk turnstones, 3 greater yellowlegs, yellow-rumped warbler, raft of surf scoters, 3 eagles, 50 gulls, 1 Pacific loon, 1 pigeon guillemot,
1 dog on leash, 2 dogs off leash (photo available), 1 swimmer in wetsuit
3. South Area
– Rathtrevor Beach
– west end of Mariner Way, view to river mouth.
– Parksville Bay, Parksville Community Park, from the Labyrinth, view off shore, sandbars, and back into the bay.
Total brant counted: 1541
Other birds observed: gulls, dabblers, 2 rafts of divers (scaup & scoters)
1 dog off leash.
Photo courtesy of Jim Thorne